21 worst things about Austin(the complete list) (house, live)

[nativeaustinite]

Here are some of the worst things about Austin:
1) The traffic
2) The heat, it's friggin hot & humid
3) The grackles (black birds) that eat trash, roost in trees in huge groups & poop all over you & your car
4) Mosquitoes - Oh, my god they're bad, they'll eat you alive
5) Tree Roaches - These are so gross, they are these gigantic cockroaches that run right at you
6) The parking - it's impossible to find a spot anywhere downtown
7) The allergies - It's really bad, some of the worst in the nation, cedar trees everywhere in SW Austin
8) Rats & Snakes (which co-exist), big sewer rats that inhabit behind many restaurants & rat snakes which are these big long snakes that go after the rats (yuck), rattlesnakes, coral snakes, copperheads, cottonmouths
9) Scorpions & Brown Recluse Spiders - especially a problem in the newly developed areas around SW Austin
10) Homeless people - they're everywhere begging for spare change

[carolinajack]

mimimom, read #9, i was being sarcastic, wow

and the Dems will only make things worse, and it was more like people who had no business purchasing ARM loan homes they couldnt afford-thats where the problem started, not the Bush Admin

[mouseandlion]

Oh no! I'm moving to Austin from Ann Arbor, MI (a super liberal town). Anyone have a 25 best things about Austin? Can't wait for the bbq though...

[DCTalk]

Carolinajack, you must be joking. How could anyone make things worse than what the Bush administration did to this country? Two futile, unfinished wars, an economy in ruins thanks to a lack of proper oversight and plain old Republican supported greed and corruption. Lives destroyed in war and economic ruin. Quite a legacy that Republican administration left. Compare the condition this country was in when Bush took office and the condition it is when he left, and ask if any rational person would want to continue the Republican policies that put us in this position.

[iceshots]

Originally Posted by nativeaustinite

Here are some of the worst things about Austin:
1) The traffic
2) The heat, it's friggin hot & humid
3) The grackles (black birds) that eat trash, roost in trees in huge groups & poop all over you & your car
4) Mosquitoes - Oh, my god they're bad, they'll eat you alive
5) Tree Roaches - These are so gross, they are these gigantic cockroaches that run right at you
6) The parking - it's impossible to find a spot anywhere downtown
7) The allergies - It's really bad, some of the worst in the nation, cedar trees everywhere in SW Austin
8) Rats & Snakes (which co-exist), big sewer rats that inhabit behind many restaurants & rat snakes which are these big long snakes that go after the rats (yuck), rattlesnakes, coral snakes, copperheads, cottonmouths
9) Scorpions & Brown Recluse Spiders - especially a problem in the newly developed areas around SW Austin
10) Homeless people - they're everywhere begging for spare change

A lot of best and worse lists are very subjective.

1) Traffic is no worse, and is better than most places I have lived in.
2) Hot yes. Humid No compared to summers in Toronto. There an 80 degree day is sweltering because of the humidity. Same with Florida. I find Austin dry.
3) Same as pigeons and seagulls in other places. I have to admit, the flocks are intimidating.
4) I find them not bad at all. If you want to get eaten alive, go to northern or central Ontario. They see bug spray as gravy for the feast!
5) Ugh
6) Parking in any downtown is usually lousy.
7) Yup
8) Ugh again.
9) Ugh the third time. But some people like the scorpions.
10) This one does seem to be worse here than other places. They are very in your face at all the intersections, and all over the place, not just downtown.

[sunshine18102]

Originally Posted by scongress1234

The following is comprehensive, and in order of obnoxiousness, but, keep, in mind, this is subjective, and others would rank these differently.....

To begin with...Numero Uno...the one uncontested worst thing about
Austin....

1.) The Traffic!!!!!!!!!

Whats worse? The road system, seemingly designed by a 4th grader who
won a contest in the American-Statesman, or the sheer mass of cars,
piled onto a road structure built at best for half the population?

2.) The Heat!

But thats simply the price you pay to live in Austin - three months of unremitting 100-degree heat......bumper sticker recently seen - "Hey, at least we're not Phoenix!"

3.) Allergies....

cough cough, sniff sniff....need I say more?

4.) Californians...

Again, need I say more?

5.) Pollution...

wait, you mean CO comes out of all those hundreds of thousands of exhaust pipes? I thought it was perfume? Must be why Austin ranked
#8 in per capita pollution....again, cough cough, sniff sniff

6.)Long stop lights ....

At one I was at last night, had time to make a sandwich, change junior's diaper, AND reload my IPOD.......

7.)No Public Transportation....

Let me get this straight...a city with over 700,000 people, and essentially NO public trans? And this in an age when we might see 6-7 dollar a gallon gas soon? To paraphrase Jim Morrison....

"This is the end, the end of Austin growth, my friend...."

8.) Texan braggadoccio....

As in, we act as if we are the only city in the history of western civ. to have a barband entertainment district, and festivals in the spring and fall..gee, you mean other cities are still working on those novel concepts?
Or another corollary....we act as if we are the only city in the world with Bohemian districts....WOW...you mean we have two or three streets with boutiques and such......man, that makes the other 95% of the sprawl way palatable!

9.) Red-state suburban republicans.....

Or, in other words, Leander, Georgetown, Round Rock, Cedar Park, et.al.
And more every day moving into Austin proper......that little liberal blop in a sea of conservatism is gettin' a whole lot smaller.....pretty soon it will be down to one street in Austin...south congress perhaps..last bastion of liberalism?

10.) Le Mans mentality drivers...

Every drive an "experience", or test of wills....tailgating....lane changing..
blocking you out so you can't get in the exit lane, out of spite.....a sense of humor helps....just realize that 100,000 people just like you moved out here and it all makes sense.....wait, oh yeah, I forgot, Austin's utopia..

11.) Humidity...

But it makes my hair look curly and fro-ish just like my senior high grad pic......

12.) Religious Zealots....

LOL! And you thought they were all in Houston and Dallas! WRONG!

13.) Too crowded...

Oh Jeez....EVERYONE wants to live here....you mean when they all come here, it creates traffic, it takes 15 minutes to go through the HEB checkout line, 101,000 people compete for the 3 jobs over 50K, and you have to pay to park anywhere within 2 miles of DT? oh, come now!

14.) College Party mentality......

Think most of the 6th street and thereabouts barricaded by construction and REAL horses every friday and sat evening....image forever bored into my brain...a kid puking while sitting on the curb in front of Ronello's pizza slice window......a classic....

15.) Male-female ratio.....
45-55.........great for women, bad for guys....so this is the one that could be a good thing if you are a female...so this should really be just a 1/2...

16.) Homeless begging EVERYWHERE........places I've seen them P-handling.....on x-way interchanges......traffic medians......festivals....
parks...DT....6th....congress.....Lamar....Mcneil. .....and on and on.......

17.)Narcissictic yuppies/hippies....people who hammer their vegan/holistic mindset onto everyone they meet.....my question..if you are that holistic, why aren't you living in an out-of-the-way commune or small city out in the boondocks, like Montana or Utah? Why choose the 16th largest city in the USA, and the fastest growing one with the 7th largest carbon footprint per capita? Or are you just here to preach to the unconverted ?

18.)The focus on UT...

heh heh...."Hook em' Horns baaaaaybeee"...heh heh.....yes, the city has a singular focus on the university sports teams, the largest city not to have a pro team.......and oh lord, does that burnt orange get old.......it does tire to see a little "shrine" in every walgreens, HEB, and whathaveyou, with all the swag....and i remember when they got a new ladies basketball coach from DUKE, and that was headline news for a week on TV...OUCH!
Keep in mind that 70% of the people you see wearing burnt orange away from UT are relocatees that oh so badly want to fit in.....yes, I still wear mine, but I have a great need to be loved.....

19.) Heart disease inducing eateries....

Hint...you want a hot job in Austin 15 years from now? You might want to get into medicine....yes, seemingly every restaurant in Austin showcases
meals that top 3000 calories or more...but oh do those BBQ'd dishes taste good.....MMMMMMMM....I can feel those scalpels rippin' my heart and aorta apart as I chew! Yummmmm!!!!! Give me some more of that!

20.) Hippies

Yes, Austin and Marin county, california are the last places on earth to sight the almost extinct Hippius Erectus.......follow the granola, whiffs of weed, and tie-die, and you might see one....but be quiet and just observe, as the species is simply lost in his own little world, not realizing that John Denver passed on 15 years ago...

21. I-35

Does this thing move? Why does it look like its perpetually stuck, with 200 trucks from mexico blowing black plumes of non-epa regulated diesel?

. I can handle everything you said but no buses. May have to buy a car if i move there. we i live at there are killings, drugs, crime, 3 bars on every corner and it is cold and love john denver.

[AK123]

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

Huh?
Do you know anything about Austin? It's the blue dot in the red state. Sounds like Dallas or Houston- or College Station- would suit you better.

Huh? Do you know anything about Dallas or Houston?
2008 Presidential Election County Map

[Mdlx]

Originally Posted by AK123

Huh? Do you know anything about Dallas or Houston?
2008 Presidential Election County Map

While they did vote democratic, they were not nearly as blue as Austin's 64%. From that map you cant see that Houston went to the left by only 18,000 votes in a total of roughly 1,200,000 votes cast.

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by AK123

Huh? Do you know anything about Dallas or Houston?

No, not really.
And I'd really like to keep it that way.

[carolinajack]

Cap Metro goes to the Airport on the Green and Yellow lines, here is a map of the transit system. Interesting #7 says there is NO public Transport, perhaps not looking for it